A Hiding Place for the Helpless

 How abundant is your goodness, which you have . . . worked for those who take refuge in you. (Psalm 31:19) 

The experience of future grace often hangs on whether we will take refuge in God, or whether we doubt his care and run for cover to other shelters. 

For those who take refuge in God, the promises of future grace are many and rich. 

None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. (Psalm 34:22) 

He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. (2 Samuel 22:31) 

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:12) 

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1:7) 

We do not earn or merit anything by taking refuge in God. Hiding, because we are weak and need protection, is not a work to commend our self-sufficiency. All it does is show that we regard ourselves as helpless and the hiding place as a place of rescue. 

In all those promises I just quoted, the condition of great blessing from God is that we take refuge in him. That condition is not a meritorious one; it is the condition of desperation and acknowledged weakness and need and trust. 

Desperation does not demand or deserve; it pleads for mercy and looks for grace.

OBSERVE TIMES OF SILENCE BEFORE GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY JUNE 27, 2024.

SUBJECT : OBSERVE TIMES OF SILENCE BEFORE GOD!

Memory verse: “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." (Revelation 8 vs 1.)

READ: First Kings 19 vs 11 - 13:

19:11: Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountain and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 

19:12: and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 

19:13: So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here Elijah?”

INTIMATION:

Silence is the state of remaining quiet and still; an absence of sound. This necessitates concentration and attentiveness. Observing a quiet or silent time before God is reverently honoring Him and His power and majesty. Concentration and attentiveness is a prerequisite for hearing God’s still small voice. 

How proper, then for us to be still in honor and reverence to Him, and in patience to hear from Him. Take time each day to be still and honor God. This is a command from God. In Psalm 46 vs 10, God said, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” God is exalted and reverenced in quietness, and His works are also done quietly. 

In communing with God in prayers, we often dump our requests on Him, and end our prayers with ’in Jesus’ name,’ without really waiting to hear from Him. We hardly allow Him to speak in the conversation, but do all the speaking while He listens. But we require to hear what He has to say to us. And when He speaks, we can only hear Him in quietness because He speaks in a still small voice. We must wait for God “in quietness and confidence.” No amount of fast talking or hasty activity could speed up God’s grand design. 

God does not need to appear in great physical events as earthquakes and fires in order to initiate His work. In the passage we read today, Elijah knew that the sound of a still small voice belonged to God. He realized that God doesn’t reveal Himself only in powerful, miraculous ways. To look for God only in something big (rallies, churches, conferences, highly visible leaders) may be to miss Him because He is often found gently whispering in the quietness of a humble heart.  

Our memory verse notes that when Christ opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. With all the activities, this dramatic pause must have seemed to last for an eternity. During this time, the only activity was prayers of the saints; “Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of saints ascended before God from the angel's hand“ (Revelation 8 vs 3 - 4). 

Are you listening to hear God’s still small voice? Step back from the noise and activity of your busy life and listen humbly and quietly for His guidance. It may come when you least expect it. We must seek God in times of silence. How proper for us to be quiet and honor God for His power and might. Take time each day to be silent and exalt God. Silence also conveys trust and confidence in God. We can trust God, and be peacefully confident that He will give us strength to face our difficulties, and provide the justice against oppressors that we seek. 

In Habakkuk 2 vs 20, the Scripture says, “But the Lord is in His Holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” We who worship the living God come to Him in silent awe and reverence. In so doing we acknowledge that God is in control and knows what He is doing. 

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of absolute confidence in You, and the wisdom to observe some reverential silence while praying to You that I may hear You speak to me in a still small voice, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

 

Prayer for the Fruit of the Womb

 1 Samuel 2:21 And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she bore three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord.

Today, we're praying for the fruit of the whom. Hannah prayed and God answered and granted Samuel. My prayer is that you pray today, may God grant you your own Samuel in Jesus Name 🙏 🙏 🙏.

PRAYER POINTS

1. Oh Lord, in the beginning, your declaration to mankind was to be fruitful, to multiply, and replenish the earth,I stand by your word this day and I declare my fruitfulness in Jesus name.

2. Our covenant fathers, Abraham, Isaac , and Jacob all had there children, therefore i declare that I shall have mine in Jesus name.

3. Oh Lord! I declare today that i shall be fruitful and multiply in Jesus name.

4. Oh God that visited sarah with Isaac and hannah with Samuel, father visit me today in Jesus name.

5. Oh Lord, under the new covenant, Jesus paid the prize for my fruitfulness, therefore I receive my Children today in Jesus name.

6. I believe that what man see as impossible is possible for God in my life. I shall be pregnant and deliver my own baby this year in Jesus name.

7. Oh Lord, remove whatever is the root cause of my barrenness today. Make me a mother this month in Jesus name.

8. My Father and My God, remember me even as you remembered Rachel and opened her womb, remember me today, listen to me today and open my womb today in Jesus name

9. Oh Lord, bless me today with the blessing of the breasts and of the womb in Jesus name.

10. I prophesy that there shall be no other miscarriage in my life again in Jesus name.

11. Oh Lord, open my eyes to the Solution of my fruitfulness in Jesus name Amen

12. Oh Lord, by your mighty hand, i change my name from mother of barrenness to mother of many children in Jesus name.

13. Oh Lord, i declare to my womb today, ” Womb, Hear The Word Of The Lord, Be Opened and carry my Children in” in Jesus name.

14. Father, grant me my on miracle children testimony in Jesus name

15. Oh Lord, heal my husband from any fertility related sickness in Jesus name.

16. Oh Lord, all my grief arising from barrenness has been nailed to the cross from today. It is now my turn to carry my babies in Jesus name.

17. All reproach of barrenness in my life shall come to an end this month in Jesus name.

18. I declare that all those that are mocking me today , shall soon come and celebrate with me in Jesus name.

19. Oh Lord, do not judge me by the measure of my faith over my prayers. Let the rain of mercy fall on me today and open my womb in Jesus name.

20. Oh Lord, cause my womb become fertile in Jesus name.

21. Thank you jesus, because you have answered my prayers.

The Fear That Draws Us In

 “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” (Exodus 20:20)

There is a fear that is slavish and drives us away from God, and there is a fear that is sweet and draws us to God. Moses warned against the one and called for the other in the very same verse, Exodus 20:20: “Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.’” 

The clearest illustration I have ever seen of this kind of good fear was the time one of my sons looked a German shepherd in the eye. We were visiting a family from our church. My son Karsten was about seven years old. They had a huge dog that stood eye to eye with a seven-year-old. 

He was friendly and Karsten had no problem making friends. But when we sent Karsten back to the car to get something we had forgotten, he started to run, and the dog galloped up behind him with a low growl. And of course, this frightened Karsten. But the owner said, “Karsten, why don’t you just walk? The dog doesn’t like it when people run away from him.” 

If Karsten hugged the dog, he was friendly and would even lick his face. But if he ran from the dog, the dog would growl and fill Karsten with fear. 

That’s a picture of what it means to fear the Lord. God means for his power and holiness to kindle fear in us, not to drive us from him, but to drive us to him. Fearing God means, first, fearing to abandon him as our great security and satisfaction. 

Or another way to say it is that we should fear unbelief. Fear not trusting God’s goodness. Isn’t that the point of Romans 11:20? “You stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.” That is, what we should fear is not believing, not having faith. Fear running away from God. But if we walk with him and hug his neck, he will be our friend and protector forever.

THE FRUIT OF A CHRISTLIKE LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 26, 2024.

SUBJECT: THE FRUIT OF A CHRISTLIKE LIFE!

Memory verse: "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thornbushes, or figs of thistles?" (Matthew 7 vs 16.)

READ: Matthew 7 vs 15 - 20:

7:15: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

7:16: You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thornbrushes, or figs of thistles?

7:17: Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

7:18: A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

7:19: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, and thrown into the fire.

7:20: Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

INTIMATION:

Fruit is edible growth of plants, it also signifies the result or product of an endeavor; the consequence of some effort or action. Our actions and their consequences reveal who we are. For instance, in God’s kingdom, our faith in Christ is demonstrated by actions that depict such faith. If we say we follow Christ we must strive to be like Him; doing things in accordance with His ways. And it is by our actions (fruit) that people, and even God, will know our sincerity in following Him. 

The “Christian life” is a “faith life.” Faith must be more than belief in certain facts; it must result in action, growth in Christian character, and the practice of moral discipline, or it will die away. Some of the faith actions are: soul winning, learning to know God better, developing perseverance, doing God’s Will, and loving others. These character traits are found in the nature of Christ, they do not come automatically, but require hard work. 

In Galatians 5 vs 22 - 23, and Second Peter 1 vs 5 - 8, the Scriptures list additional fruit qualities of Christian character: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness self-control. Against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5 vs 22 - 23.) “And also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; to virtue knowledge; to knowledge self-control; to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Second Peter 1 vs 5 - 8.) 

They are not optional; all of them must be a continual part of the Christian life. We don’t finish one and start the next, but we work on them all together. God empowers and enables us, but He also gives us the responsibility to learn and grow.

For the genuine followers of Christ, the fruit is the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in them. They are the by-product of Christ’s control—we can’t obtain them by trying to get them without His help. If we want the fruit to grow in us, we must join our life to His (John 15 vs 4 - 5.) We must know Him, love Him, remember Him, and imitate Him. As a result, we will fulfill the intended purpose of the law—to love God and our neighbor. 

God’s people can produce fruit that survives even death. God will remember our love, kindness, and faithfulness, and those who accept Christ through our witness will join us in the new earth. Be sure that your values are in line with God’s values, and decide today to produce fruit that lasts forever. The Scripture says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors; and their works follow them.” (Revelation 14 vs 13.)

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with Your excellent Spirit that I may bear fruit after the nature of Christ,l that lasts to eternity, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART AGAINST GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JUNE 25, 2024.

SUBJECT: HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART AGAINST GOD!

Memory verse: "God is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?" (Job 9 vs 4.)

READ: Psalm 95 vs 6 - 11:

95:6: Oh come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

95:7: For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today if you will hear His voice,

95:8: do not harden your heart, as in the rebellion, and as in the day of trial in the wilderness:

959: When your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they saw My work.

95:10: For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know My ways,’

95:11: So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest.

INTIMATION:

The hardening of heart is a dulled spiritual perception. It’s refusing the Word of God—unwilling to keep HIs commands. Even Christians can be hard-hearted to Jesus’ words. We can be informed about what His Word says, and we can be amazed at how He has worked in other people’s lives, but we can refuse to believe He will come to our aid in our time of trouble. Such a reaction is not unbelief, but willful, hard-hearted rejection of Christ’s ability to help. 

Our hearts turn away from the living God when we stubbornly refuse to believe Him. If we persist in our unbelief, God will eventually leave us alone in our sin. To prevent having an unbelieving heart, stay in fellowship with other believers, talk daily about your usual mutual faith, be aware of the deceitfulness of sin (it attracts but also destroys), and encourage each other with love and concern. But our God is so merciful, He can give us new hearts, new desires, and new spirits (Ezekiel 36 vs 22 - 27). 

Spiritual hardening begins with self-sufficiency, security in one’s self, and self-satisfaction. The real danger is that at some point, repeated resistance to God will yield an actual inability to respond, which the Bible describes as a hardened heart. Insensitivity indicates advanced hardening.

A hardened heart is as useless as a hardened bread. Nothing can restore it or make it useful. The writer of Psalm 95 warns against hardening our hearts as Israel did in the wilderness by continuing to resist God’s Will (Exodus 17 vs 7; Numbers 13; 14; 20) The people were so convinced that God couldn’t deliver them that they simply lost their faith in Him. People with hardened hearts are so stubbornly set in their ways that they cannot turn to God. 

The hardening of heart does not happen suddenly or all at once; it is the result of a series of choices to disregard God’s Will; constant stubbornness to God’s Will. The danger here is that those who resist God long enough, will be tossed aside by Him like hardened bread; useless and worthless.

God may harden further the hardened heart to confirm their own choices. That doesn’t mean that God is intentionally preventing them from believing in Him, rather it’s allowing them their own choice, and wallow in their permissible will. After a lifetime of resisting God, such people had become so set in their ways that they wouldn’t even try to understand Jesus’ message. For such people, it is virtually impossible to come to God—their hearts have been permanently hardened. 

The prophet Jeremiah tells such people to break up the hardness of their hearts as a plow breaks up unplowed ground—soil that has not been tilled for a season. When the heart becomes hardened to God’s Will, the entrance of God’s Word becomes very difficult. Unless the heart is broken and cleaned up, the good seed of God’s Word can’t take root. We must remove our heart-hardening sin if we expect God’s Word to take root and grow in our lives. Old habits and hidden sins had to be uprooted and rejected.

Hardened heart keeps us from God’s ultimate blessings; “entering His rest.” The hardened heart is an ungrateful heart, not worshipping or submitting to God, always trying God’s patience because of stubborn doubt. It’s very sinful and rebellious to God to harden our hearts. Instead we should reject the glamour of sin and anything else that would lead us away from God.

Here are some warning signs of a hardened heart: (1) Willful disobedience (see Exodus 4 vs 21), (2) Having wealth and prosperity that leads to taking God’s blessings for granted, and cause us to feel as if they were owed to us (see Deuteronomy 8 vs 6 - 14), (3) Rebelling and being discontented due to suffering or discomfort that creates an attitude that blames God (see Psalm 95 vs 8), (4) Rejecting a deserved rebuke (Proverbs 29 vs 1), (5) Refusing to listen which leads to a loss of spiritual hearing. (Zechariah 7 vs 11 - 13). (6) Failing to respond—listening to God with no intention of obeying produces an inability to obey (Matthew 13 vs 11 - 15).

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of obedience and absolute trust in You, for I know that Your thought for me is of good and not of evil, always thinking of the best for me which I may not know. By You all things consist, and may I never lean on my own understanding, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

I Can Be Content in Every Circumstance

 I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13) 

God’s provision of day-by-day future grace enables Paul to be filled or to be hungry, to prosper or suffer, to have abundance or go wanting. 

“I can do all things” really means “all things,” not just easy things. “All things” means, “Through Christ I can hunger and suffer and be in want.” This puts the stunning promise of Philippians 4:19 in its proper light: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

What does “every need of yours” mean in view of Philippians 4:11–12? It means “all that you need for God-glorifying contentment.” Which may include times of hunger and need. Paul’s love for the Philippians flowed from his contentment in God, and his contentment flowed from his faith in the future grace of God’s infallible provision to be all he needed in times of plenty and want.

It’s obvious then that covetousness is exactly the opposite of faith. It’s the loss of contentment in Christ so that we start to crave other things to satisfy the longings of our hearts which only the presence of God himself can satisfy. And there’s no mistaking that the battle against covetousness is a battle against unbelief in God’s promise to be all we need in every circumstance. 

This is so clear in Hebrews 13:5. Watch how the author argues for our freedom from the love of money — freedom from covetousness — the freedom of contentment in God: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Faith in this promise — “I will never leave you” — breaks the power of all God-dishonoring desire — all covetousness.

Whenever we sense the slightest rise of covetousness in our hearts, we must turn on it and fight it with all our might using the weapons of this faith.